Normally our issues are titled by a connection to the subject of the Interrogation Room, who in this issue is the very devoted SoC teacher General Roy. Once in a while, for important special occasions, we deviate from that pattern. This is one such special occasion. The news that Conquer Club is again under new ownership, and the many things that have resulted from it, constitute a big event -- the kind of event that puts the "news" into "newsletter" and makes it exciting to be able to write here.

It started on Tuesday, with the announcement that once again CC has changed hands. Yes, that was just last Tuesday. Five days ago. Four-and-a-half days, if you consider the time and not just the date. So much has happened since then, that it seems hard to believe.

Right away, of course, the questions began. Everyone wanted to know, "What is this new Whammy guy planning for us?" OliverFAsummed it up best:

OliverFA wrote:Second, can you share with us your vision of CC in, lets say, one year from now and five years from now? That vision would give a clear idea of what we can expect from your leadership.

bigWham wrote:Regarding the Vision for CC, I will share one in the near future. Right now however, and for the next period, I am focused on delivering some results. I think when we all see things moving forward, we will feel more at home kicking back and discussing visions, philosophies and the nature of space-thyme.

Thanks for everyone's support - I look forward to justifying it.

I, personally, very much look forward to discussing space-thyme! Along with matter-parsley, energy-sage, and superstring-rosemary!

It took very little time to see that BW meant what he said about delivering results first! By Friday we had another announcement: not just one improvement, but a whole omnibus package of them!

First, the long-awaited introduction of 12-player games. Many, many people have been excited about this upgrade to the site. As of this moment, almost 500 games with 9 to 12 players have been created, over 100 have already begun, and a dozen have already finished. Some maps cannot be opened to the maximum number of players. Those are listed in the original announcement, and also in an article by koontz1973 in our Cartographic section below.

Second, "Invitations 3.0" -- you might want to consider this as a single package or as several different improvements, but essentially it represents a long-overdue overhaul of the Invitation system. According to rdsrds2120,

rdsrds2120 wrote:Another long awaited Suggestion, Invitations 3.0 are here, and here's what we have to offer:

Invite upon Game Creation

Accept Multiple/All Invites

Cancel sent invitations

Sent Invitations Are Cancelled if you Drop the Game (for those erroneous games with the wrong settings -- tournament games excluded)

Invitations for Speed Games

Third, a mixed bag of minor tweaks in different areas:

rdsrds2120 wrote:We also have a few more updates to release today, in no particular order:

Anyway you cut it, that is a HUGE set of improvements. Not everyone will like every item in the list. Indeed, there is already a hot debate about the Freestyle Delay, and I'm sure some of the others will have their detractors also. Still, any way you slice it, it's a very big package, and almost anyone can find something in it to be happy about.

Well done bigWham! and well done blakebowling and rdsrds2120 and the whole development team, and well done IcePack and the Beta Testing team and the Colour Committee and the Suggestions Team and everyone else involved! And, let's give credit where credit is due: a considerable amount of groundwork for these updates was done under the previous administration, so let's give a final round of thanks to El_Jefe and antispectator too!

What's really amazing is that the changes continue. Already, some of you may have noticed the separation of the top tabs on your game page:This is not just a cosmetic change, but a preparation for an overhaul of the basic user interface, featuring pull-down menus at the top. This will enable the elimination of the side menu, which will allow you to use more of the screen for the games themselves. Where will this overhaul end? I dare not predict! I suspect, though, that much more sophisticated overlays and tool tips are on the way.

As with any updates, bugs pop up here and there, but again the response of the new team has been exemplary. Bug reports are watched actively, and fixes implemented rapidly.

What's really important is that bigWham's positive attitude seems to have really lit a fire under everyone else on the team. Attitudes are contagious, good as well as bad, and in this case there seems to be a hell of a lot of good.

Besides the updates, I have to say that I am really, really impressed by the forthright way that bigWham has addressed problems and criticisms, with no evasion or obfuscation, going straight to the heart of the issue.

laughingcavalier wrote:This site did have an astonishing pioneers-of-the-interwebz buzz about it at one time with a lot of interesting & committed people giving it a lot of time & contributing in different ways to make it great. It will probly never quite have that buzz again, but I'm pretty confident it will remain a fine place to while away a few hours for a long time yet.

I've always hoped that the vibrant community laughingcavalier spoke of would one day return. This week, for the first time in a long time, I have a bit of optimism that it's not just wishful thinking.

Finally, our Next Mission Brief includes such things as the closing credits, information on how to subscribe, and an invitation to participate in the next Interrogation.

Please enjoy what our many devoted writers have prepared for you! In total there are a staggering nineteen articles in this issue, which I believe is a record. I'm glad we went to the new multi-post format -- there is zero chance that we could have squeezed all this into the old single-post newsletter.

I have recently started as a student in the SoC. I have played 2 games there so far, of which I was able to win one. I decided that in order to attract more people to the SoC, and to show everybody how it works, I would do a turn-by-turn report on a game. Every turn I will share the map of the current turn, my thoughts on the current situation and how it's different from the last turn. I will also share the plans I will send in to the SoC teachers, and their comments on my plan. At last, I will share the outcome of that plan.

Hope you'll enjoy!

StubbsKVM

Turn 10

Click image to enlarge.

StubbsKVM=yellow

ThoughtsGame over, blue has won. I'm sorry I let you guys down, but I'll make it up to you, I promise. Losing my North America stack on turn 6 made it hard for me to make a kill and if I had lived 1 extra turn, I might have had a real chance. Maybe I should have cashed in on turn 9, but I guess we'll never know what would have happened then.

Want to get into the Mafia scene, but don't know how to play or even what it is? Consult these threads: Mafia Information, Mafia and You, and Rules and Terms of Mafia.Too much work? Too lazy to read through everything? No worries, you can always jump right into a game and ask for other players or the game runner to help guide you.

What is "Mafia"?Mafia, for those of you that don't know, is a game that generally takes place in a town, where the townspeople have to determine who the mafia (or "scum") is and lynch them via a majority vote during the day and the mafia try to kill everyone at night and bluff their way out of getting killed by the town.

Mafia NewsThe Wire Mafia is at LYLO at Day 6. With only 4 remaining, who will rule the city?

Mafia CalloutsCalling all players interested! Some mafia games need some filling:

Advanced Roles and Strategy by safariguy5A special type of game is discussed this issue.

Nightless Games

What is It?NIghtless games are games where there are no night phases. Lynching and voting drive the game with no night kills from mafia. Usually results in fewer town power roles but mafia may have a few daykills to compensate.

ExampleA nightless game ends Day 1 with a no lynch. All roles with powers send them in before the second Day begins.

How to Use this StrategyA mathematical formula on mafiascum has set the balance at mafia being 1/4th of the players in the game for there to be a 50-50 chance of either side winning. Post activity is much more important in a Nightless game since deaths are only decided by lynches.

Q. Do you work where you want to work, or where you have to?Geographically it's where I want to, job wise I didn't have much choice.

Q. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?Somewhere with a stable and not too hot climate, but not too cold either. Somewhere where the temperature would stay in the 20th Celsius, I think. Would not be easy to find, I think.

Q. What depresses you the most about the world?The financial climate. Also that the US tries to be a world police, but which really runs the errands of rich merchants, who try to gain economically from the West sending in troops in different countries.

Q. If public transportation was more efficient, would you prefer not to bother driving?This presupposes that public transport isn't sufficiently efficient where I live, or that I don't use other means of transport than a car. In actual fact, I am in the envious situation that I can use the bicycle for work, or just walk.

Also, it's a question of price - if the train prices were lower so that it would be worthwhile for a small family, I would prefer using a train for longer transport than a car.

Q. Do you have some trendy smartphone or just a normal phone with buttons?Just a normal phone with buttons, though my next phone will probably be a smartphone.

Q. What is your favourite holiday or special day on the calendar?That must be the Feast of Tabernacles.

Q. Have you ever been to jail?No, I'm happy to say. I have always tried to keep within the law, also on the roads.

Q. Do you have a dog?No. My wife did have one when she was young, but she feels it binds you too much. Perhaps when we become pensioners, I don't know.

Q. What's most important: baseball, beer, or broads?The least important of these three is definitely baseball. I think ladies (not broads, mind you) are the most important.

In a way I get the feeling this is like the classic question: "Have you stopped beating your wife?"

Q. What made you want to be involved in the Society of Cooks and do you think there is a good way to get more new users involved in it to better user retention?I don't quite remember how I became aware of it, but I felt a great need to learn a better strategy than I had at the time.

I am not really sure how to get more new users involved, expect mention it in game chats if one discovers new players who are participating.

Q. Will you ever add more religions to your interests?I doubt it. I am quite happy with my current religious affiliations.

Q. What compels you to answer these questions?"Compels"? Please refer to the question I mentioned above: "Have you stopped beating your wife?"

Honestly I am not fond of questions that are based on certain assumptions that may not necessarily be true.

Q. The rest of the world views Norwegian girls as the gold standard for hotness. Is that how Norwegians see it? How does it feel to be number one? And on an unrelated note, do you have any granddaughters who are 20-29 who are single?I thought it was Swedish girls that were viewed as this standard, but I guess it has changed since Norway got into the oil economy in earnest and probably is the main country without state debt these days. I am actually so old now that I don't really know how the younger generation look at these things, but you may find that if you visit Norway, it's not that easy to get close to Norwegian females. When they visit other countries they probably decide to loosen up quite a lot compared to at home.

No. 1: Our then Prime Minister Gro Harlem Bruntland said in 1992 when Norway had the Winter Olympics something like "It's Norwegian to be the best in the World." To me, that's just pure bragging, and I don't think it's difficult to find areas to criticize Norway. It's as if we believe all the oil in Norwegian territorial waters are a result of something we have done to deserve it. That's, of course, just a deception.

Grand daughters that are 20-29 years old= I am afraid that my 21 year old son first has to find a sweetheart before I would get any grand daughter, so that's quite a long way off.

Q. Why are Norwegians so tall?Good health, probably.

Q. Is it true that every Norwegian knows his or her Viking clan's genealogy?I don't, so the answer would be no.

Q. Are you as well-versed in Carl Barks and Don Rosa as your countryman, the inestimable lt. Futt? =)Afraid not.

Q. Have you read C.S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton? If so, what did you think of them?C.S. Lewis. He is high on my preferred authors. I love the Narnia series, and like the science fiction trilogy of his, though it is many years since I read the last now. Regarding G.K. Chesterton, I have followed the TV series Father Brown, which I have liked, although I feel it's not quite on a par with some other mystery series.

Q. What are your top five favorite books?Difficult question, not least since you don't say if you mean fiction or books in general.The Bible is, of course important to me, although I don't read it as much these days as I should. (I don't read books in general quite as much as I used to do in actual fact.)Lancelot Hogben's Mathematics for the Million.Of fiction the top would have to beOrson Scott Card: Ender's ShadowOrson Scott Card: Ender's GameOrson Scott Card: Seventh sonZenna Henderson: The People: No Different FleshA.E. van Vogt: The Weapon Shops of Isher

I could add many more, but these are some of my all time favourites.

Q. Were you born awesome, or did you grow into it like a comfortable set of clothes?Am I awesome? I didn't know that. I have an uncanny feeling you would not think that if you met me in real life, as I am of a somewhat shy disposition. This has become better in later years, not least as I'm meeting younger people now (teens) as part of my work as a teacher.

Q. I'm (macbone) pretty terrible at Age of Realms, which I know you're really good at. Any tips? =)The main tip would be to avoid frostbite areas, as they make you lose troops each round. Go for resource pairs and ports. Also, all castles are not created equal, like the animals in Animal Farm, so it's much better to do well on Aoria and Mua than the others I feel, since it's much easier to reach them. Also playing defensive doesn't work very well on this map. The sooner you get a village the easier it is to win this map.

But the best tutor is experience - playing a lot of games on this map to get a better grasp on the map, so you manage to read the game log better. You can work out where your opponents are from it, but it takes some experience to do it easily.

Q. Do you love Thor Heyerdahl?I respect him, and think he is (was) an interesting personage. In many ways, I have an even higher regard for Fridtjof Nansen, who, besides being a polar explorer also played an important part of the League of Nations.

Q. How did you escape from Fishydance's closet?I think you would have to make this question more precise, as I don't recollect any closet at the moment. You are not talking about David John's locket in Pirates II?

Q. How much time does the SoC take up? Would depend on you, really. I don't visit it each day, and some classrooms are not very active, so I guess perhaps 15 minutes each time I visit it.

Q. How many active games are you comfortable playing while teaching at the same time?Around 10 I think.

Q. Who is the Hottest KoRT girl?The only KoRT girl that come to mind would be loesloes, I think, so I guess she would be the one.

Q. How do the ladies repay for teaching them CC?For the most part I think of each pupil as a "he" regardless of sex. I have never thought of repayment for teaching the students, but instead like to help them improve their play. It irks me when I see someone playing stupid, so helping them to avoid that would be the main reward, I think. An honestly it is at times nice to show that one knows something better than someone else on occasion too.

Q. Who on CC do you respect the most?Must be josko.ri, I think, whom I recently discovered was top on the scoreboard as a Conqueror. I see he is on 2nd place now as a general, but I would not be surprised if he regains his title soon.

Other than that I probably respect dhallmeyer the most, I think, because of his involvement in the SoC forum.

Q. Best player on CC?That surely must be josko.ri. I must confess, though, that I in the past did not enjoy playing on the same team as him since he was much better at reading the situation than I did, and he had a tendency to presuppose I saw it the same way as he did. I am involved in a quadruple game with him currently, and things go much better in that regard now, I'm happy to say.

Q. Who to watch out for coming up in the SoC ranks?I would not really know.

Q. Which clan is the best and why?Probably KoRT, with josko.ri as a member

Q. What is your proudest moment in the SoC?The first time I swept the Classic map. I can't now remember when this happened, but it was very nice.

Q. Are you into sports, now or in past? Is/was there any sport activity that you loved?I did some swimming and speed skating in my youth. Other than that I, like most Norwegians, have been involved in cross country skiing.I love to watch snooker, though, although it's not much shown on Norwegian TV.

Q. Your favorite all time top three movies?That is a difficult one, since it changes as time goes by.V for Vendetta comes high.Harry Potter 1, 4 and 8 are definitely on that list.Lord of the Rings 1. I felt that 2 and especially 3 used too much time on the battle itself.Inception comes very high too.This was much more than 3 - sorry about that, but it's difficult at times to make up one's mind on that question.

I very much look forward to Ender's Game when it comes later this autumn, though. I do hope it will do the book justice.

Q. Which EPL team do you support?As I don't know what EPL is, I probably do not support any of them.

Q. What keeps you in conquer club?I find it quite addictive, though I was somewhat upset with the dice for a while so I've reduce my activity a lot. Currently the main reason would be the CC 1v1 ladder tournament, which I find quite interesting, probably because I, to my own great surprise, actually win more games than I lose, at least so far. So I seem to have found a strategy that works quite well in 1v1 games, and that's nice

Q. Have you felt any bad with dice ever?Definitely. Recently I did 5 or 6 turns and got only 1 card. The game, as a result, didn't go very well.But another time I almost killed a 43 troop strong stack with 13 troops. I did feel a little bad towards the other player for that reason, naturally enough.

Q. I (HardAttack) would like to hear of your music taste and if you can suggest me of your most favorite all time three bands ?Currently it would definitely be the Dutch group Within Temptation, who visited Oslo last Saturday (24 August). Not all their music are that good, but they at the same time have some that I just love, for instance "Perfect Harmony", which was the first I heard of them about 10 years ago.

The Norwegian group Donkey Boy is also very high, and also the group Kaizers Orchestra from Stavanger in Norway.

Going a little back, I must include Jethro Tull and Amazing Blondel. Beatles was my all time favourite in times back, but my musical taste has changes somewhat in the meantime.

Q. Marry me (loes) Roy ? I know you are joking, though if I had been single, I might have taken you up on the offer.But on a more serious vein both my wife and I believe marriage is for life, so divorce is out of the question, at least at the moment.

Q. How do you like your work in the SoC?I don't do much work in the SoC, but I do like the little I do as a teacher in SoC.

Q. Do you find it rewarding to see a student win?Yes, definitely, since it hopefully have taught him/her some tricks.

Q. Do you hate me (StubbsKVM) for pm-ing you to review my actions?Should I? Quite the contrary, I appreciate it very much, as I hate it when I discover that a student has had to take his (sorry ladies, but his/her feels a little awkward all the time) turn without a tutor showing up.

Q. Do you hate me (StubbsKVM) for pm-ing you to review my actions when not providing a link?Hate is too strong a word, but I would appreciate it more that students (and that goes for the rest of the students also) remember to provide the link to the actual thread in the classroom.

Q. Do you hate me (StubbsKVM) for providing the wrong link sometimes?I guess you can see from the above that I do not. I do appreciate that you do remember to avoid this in the future, though, as it makes it faster to come to the right place for the tutor.

Q. Are you REALLY a General?Me? You clearly have not checked my rank Actually, I was in the army (cavalry) some 40 years ago, and I was a second lieutenant when I left it.

Q. Do you think Bruceswar looks better in heels or flats?"flats"? I am not sure I understand the reference.

Q. Should the newspaper be presented as a broadsheet, for additional gravity and dignity?I don't really have any opinion on that.

Q. Would you rather be the bat or the ball?Guess the bat.

Q. Am I (BoganGod) the only God?If you check my religious affiliations, I think you will find the answer to that question.

Q. Is the Julian calendar preferable to the Gregorian? If you were to incalculate a few additional days to better match seasons and the year(make football season longer maybe? or extend school holidays). Where would you add those days.No, the Gregorian is better, I think, though I would prefer the Hebrew calendar even more.But if I were to change the Gegorian calendar, I move move New Year back to 1st March so that the leap day (29th Frebruary) got back to the end of the year). I would also prefer to correct the stupid changes that Emperor Augustus did with the calendar when he for petty reasons gave the month 31 days rather than 30 like Julius Cæsar did.

I am trying to remember offhand if the current calendar adds 3 days too many in 10,000 years or lacks 3 days in the same period (rather a long time since I looked into this), but I believe that if the thousand years are divisible on 4,000, one would need to skip the leap day.

Q. If insensitive means not sensitive, incorrect means not correct, incapable means not capable, and insecure means not secure. Why does inflammable not mean not flammable?I'll let Wikipedia answer that: "From Latin as if *inflammabilis, from inflammare (“to set on fire”), from in (“in, on”) + flamma (“flame”)."

Q. Did you mean your user name to be General Boy, and it R by mistake?I guess you presuppose something here. But I thought I had to use a nickname related to my actual name when I at first joined. Otherwise I would have chosen something like General Napoleon or something.

Q. Who's your favourite conqueror?That would have to be josko.ri, although I see he now is a general and no longer a conqueror. Other than that I don't have high opinions of any conqueror. I usually refer to Alexander as the "almost great".-

Q. What's your favorite thing about CC?Guess that currently is the CC 1v1 ladder tournament.

Q. What do you think would be a good improvement on CC?I don't really have any suggestions there.

Our reporters have been very busy again this issue, working to bring you the latest developments on many of the major clan events that are in progress. Qwert gives us another update on Clan League 5, where there top spots in the Premier League continue to be hotly contested. IcePack has once again taken a look at the ongoing matches in Conquer Cup 4, where we have our first qualifier for the Final Eight. To top it off, we have an update on Random League 3 provided by betiko, where it appears a champion is ready to be crowned.

As if all that weren't enough, IcePack brings you the last updates to the F400, the F41 (F400 with only events including 41 games or more), and the latest edition of the Coaches Poll! That's right - if you don't like how your clan ranks in one poll, you've got two others to choose from this issue!

Premier League: OTP has lost their hold on first place, and LOW has moved in to the lead for now. LOW has rattled off 4th wins in row to take the top position, with their biggest win coming against IA (7-1), another of the clans competing for the Premier Championship.It can not be overlooked though that KORT is also slowly moving up through the ranks. Meanwhile, TNC managed to score their first win, while War scored their 6th defeat, and their third loss in a row. Round 13 and 14 will bring many interesting matches, including a direct duel between LOW and KORT. We will also see the second set of KORT-MYTH. With MYTH being the only clan who managed to defeat KORT so far, maybe MYTH can achieve another surprise result?

Second League: There were no changes to the top two positions in the last two weeks, however OSA's lead over ID shrunk by 1 point. RA made the biggest leap, and now holds the third position in the group. AOK continues to seek their first win.Round 14 will bring to us a big match with ID facing OSA, which is a very important match for both clans.

Third League: DYN and CF made big jumps up the Third League table. Right now 3 teams have separated themselves from the others, and are battling for first place. Of course, HH from the beginning has held the top place, but there are still up to 16 points available, so anything is possible.HH has continued to be impressive in their wins, and based on that, they will not be expected to have any problems against MD and LOTZ in round 13 and 14. UM8 vs AQOH (in round 14) could be a decisive match, because if UM8 wins, they can knock AQOH out of the fight for first place.

Round of 16KORT vs TFFS: 34-12 IcePack Predicts: KORT Advances KORT Wins!KORT is the first clan to advance into the Round of 8 where they will face either OTP or OSA to get into the semi-finals!Final Result: KORT AdvancesIcePack Predicted: KORT Advances

OSA vs OTP: 11-10 IcePack Predicts: OTP AdvancesLast time we checked in, OSA and OTP were tied 5-5. This war remains very close (as I predicted, it would be a coin toss between the two clans) and both are looking to earn the chance to face KORT in Round of 8. The first two batches are out, and the final batch should be exchanged today.

TSM vs MYTH: 23-12 IcePack Predicts: TSM AdvancesTSM has really gained a lead in this very quiet war. Even with Qwert working to Capitalize on his new name change, it looks like TSM will advance here to face IA or MM, with IA being favored. TSM will face a difficult battle ahead, and will need to stop monkeying around.

IA vs MM IcePack Predicts: IA AdvancesIA is coming off a short break to face MM, and the war begins Sept 1st! This should be fun to watch, however I think the assassins will earn their place in the Round of 8 when all is said and done.

TOFU vs DYN: 17-6 IcePack Predicts: TOFU AdvancesTOFU is coming off their recent CC3 Victory ahead in the F400, F41, and Coaches Poll. Seemingly uncontested currently for 1st place, its no doubt that DYN had a long hard road in front of them. TOFU appears to be headed toward victory. Once secured, they'll face either RA and ATL.

RA vs ATL: Not Started IcePack Predicts: ATL AdvancesWhile RA has been climbing in the ranks lately and performing strong, ATL brings a lot of experience to the table as the "new clan smell" slowly wears off their new home. I think this should be a fun war to watch, but ATL in the end should take it by a good margin. They are currently locked in a battle for the Newcomers Cup, in which is very close! 9-7 currently, so whatever happens there be sure the other will be looking for ways to improve on this rematch.

AFOS vs ACE: Not Started...IcePack Predicts: ACE AdvancesThis will be an excellent war and hard fought on both sides. On one hand, we have AFOS who were CC3 finalists, but recently had a shake up in members. And on the other, ACE, which is the product of EMP and AOC merger are still gaining experience as a new unified unit. While AFOS were CC3 finalists, I believe ACE will advance in CC4.

ID vs LOW: 5-11 IcePack Predicts: LOW AdvancesBoth clans did extremely well in Round of 32, so this should pose their first big challenge of the CC4. Both have the ability to beat the other, but LOW has been strong as of late and I predict they will take ID by a decent margin. ID will need to reach deep as the first round takes shape. As this match progresses, LOW is showing that it came ready for combat.

Last we looked at these two clans, they were neck and neck between 10-10 and 15-15. Since then MM has gone on the WAR path and clinched victory going an impressive 10-1 since out last look at the match up. MM moves on and faces IA next!

So here we are, approaching the end of our little tournament. All games are being played, and we just need to solve some last details to know exactly where everyone will stand. Here are the most updated results (in yellow, skirmishes that are still not finished):

Therefore, here are the actual standings. (If a skirmish isn't finished but one of the teams has reached the 7 win mark, it still has been included because the victory is clinched)

As you can see, it's pactically given that LOW will be the 2013 random league III winners! Actually, it's not: LOW is the winner as in case of a tie; the head to head matchup stands before the overall win/loss record.In spite of their latest defeat vs TFFS, their biggest opponents didn't take advantage of the situation.TOFU only managed to score 2 points out of their 3 last skirmished (defeat vs FALL, draw vs WAR and draw vs DYN) and practically lost all hopes of conquering the title. There is still a mathematical possibility though...FALL and OSA have been losing many points drawing the last 2 rounds (including to one another). They now have no more hopes!

Even if it wasn't about the head to head confrontation in case of tie, LOW would just need a win or a draw vs HH (currently ranked 14/17) or to lose and at the same time that TOFU doesn't beat G1 (ranked 11/17).

mcshanester29 brings us an expanded interview with our 3 new TDs - elonpuckhog, crazymilkshake5 and Clive. See what went down when he interrogated his newest colleagues in the feature interview, Meet the New Tournament Directors!

And though the TPA4 Cup Design competition is now over, we have DaveH taking a look back at some of the entries when the same contest ran last year for TPA3. Take a trip down memory lane and get the latest TPA news in TPA Wrap!

anamainiacks brings us up to speed with the newest tournaments that feature the new 12-player games update, all of which are still taking signups! Check out these fine available tournaments in Join This? Or Not!

Elsewhere, mcshanester29 continues to bring us his quality interviews with his latest interview with prolific TO, ViperOverLord, who provides some high quality answers to the high quality questions in Meet the Tournament Organisers; while DaveH continues to find ways to make the life of a TO easier with his handy Tournament Tips.

1.How did you come up with the username ViperOverLord? If you want tell us a little bit about yourself?

It's kind of a funny story. When I first went to play CC, I decided that I would want a glorious battle name. Given my propensity for creativity and history, I decided to look at a list of WWII code-names for operations. There was no single code-name that stuck out. But, I ended up combining two 'Viper' and 'OverLord'

Operation OverLord as it turns out is a pretty famous operation. But, when I tried to look up Operation Viper a year or so later, I didn't even find it again. Someday, I may try to find it again.

But aside from the historical significance, ViperOverLord has the sort of ring that strikes fear into an opponent! Though, people end up just calling me Viper or VOL. And on that note, in the CC NCAA Tournament ran by Robespierre__ and others (initially started by Flexmaster33), I switched to the Tennessee Volunteers who are called the VOLS for short.

2. How long have you been playing on CC and how did you get started organizing tournaments?

I've been playing CC for four plus years.

I don't know if I ever really thought I wanted to be a regular tournament organizer. But, when I finally decided to run a tournament, I decided that it should be the biggest event in CC history and I organized The Unsurpassed Championship 1! It ended up being the biggest tournament in CC history to that date and there was a definite buzz about it. My goal was to reach 1,000 entrants; actually, 1,024 for an even bracket. But, 1,000 is a more marketable term. It's like The Land Of 10,000 Lakes. There's actually 15,172 lakes. But, 10,000 sounds better. Apparently, it has a better ring than 15,000 even. And the 15,172 is off the top of my head. Someone will have to tell me if I'm right or wrong.

As it was, I reached 594 entrants for my first tournament! But, I guess more on the first tourney for question five though. However, I'll say that even though I went big for my first tourney, I do think that I was among the majority of us worry that we'll make some sort of cataclysmic mistake while running that first tournament.

As an aside, it was baterer2002 who turned me onto the idea of playing in tournaments. Currently, he is sixth all-time in tournaments organized. I think he may have been number one at the time. Actually, I think he was two or three and Blitzaholic who is now 11th may have been number one at the time. I don't know if either of them are organizing much. Back in my day, those were some serious organizers. Nothing like these kids with their flyby quickies that TO's like merch313 are organizing j/k. Merch actually does pretty amazing work.

But for the best quality, it's all about FlexMaster33. He is retired from the TO scene for well documented personal reasons. But anyone looking to run a tournament should look at his body of work. I may have ran The Unsurpassed Tournament; but he truly had the real unsurpassed quality.

3. How many tournaments do you like to have ongoing at a time?

I'm not a great multi-tasker for starters. So, less is better. The times I've gotten to ten to twelve or so, it sort of overloads me. But, when you're running tournaments based on when maps come out, you're at the mercy of the mapmakers.

4. What are your favorite settings/maps/game types you use in your tournaments?

I personally like to represent maps that are rarely used to at least to a degree. From direct polling though, I can tell you two things. One, players will always love classic. Two, players appreciate a good theme to any tournament.

5. Do you remember the very first tournament you organized? If so did it go as expected?

Back to the aforementioned The Unsurpassed Championship 1. I reached 594 tournament entrants within the 30 days allotted. I don't know if they now allow for more time or not. But, it was all grass roots advertising because at that time CC was not as helpful (necessarily) as they are now. Whereas now they might allow for an official announcement if someone undertook such a grand undertaking. At least, I would hope so.

It ended up being the largest tourney of all-time to that point. A year or two later, HighlanderAttack did his 100th tourney, which was insane and I think he may have broken the 1,000 (maybe even 2,000) entrants mark. But to this day, I think The UC1 is the largest tourney to not offer a premium prize as an incentive. And I do think it still is the largest 1 v 1 single elimination tourney still. That's what made it so fun! You only got one shot! Anybody who made it to even The Round of 64 was just totally stoked! And you'd have these epic match-ups and cinderella stories. It was amazing if you go back and look at what all happened. And winning your group, meant that you made it to The Super Sixteen!

Then there were side awards. There was a consolation tournament for play-in people at the bottom who got beat. The winner was The Surpassed Champion, . And there was a GA medal for the highest seed to reach The Super Sixteen. That ended up being HappyFlowers, who was 350 of 594! He had a pretty big rank jump during that time too. He was The Unsurpassed Underdog!

Occasionally, I get people like patrickaa317 (and others) telling me that it was that tournament that hooked them on CC. So, it was fun. And to my mild surprise, I made it to the Super Sixteen! By then, I thought it was fate that I should win my own epic tournament! But, I got second turn and my opponent, who was ranked 231, beat me on a random map (Third Crusade). He got great rolls after I thought I had won! But, that's what made winning that tournament, such a grandiose ambition! You had to get the right luck and have a lot of skill! Even in my final match in group play, I had to beat the higher ranked Ninja Champion, who is now a part of the accomplished clan Empire. Back then, it was a time when the clan scene was just starting. A high percentage of great players weren't even in a clan. And for me, that is the hay-day of tourneys. Because we saw each other in a tourney and we wanted to prove we were the best! Nowadays, that's been trumped by the emergence of the clan scene IMO. That seems to be the battlefield for ultimate pride now. Whereas then, it was all about winning the high profile tourneys!

6. What is one or two things that you would like to see improve on CC in regards to tournaments?

I don't know if this has been suggested (or if it can be done). But, it would be so much easier to run a tournament if you could do the bracket straight from CC. And for my second thing, I'll just build on that concept. It would help if right from that bracket, you could send the invites. That would be a huge time saver!

7. What advice do you have for someone just starting to organize tournaments?

My advice would be to get together a group of organizers and collectively run The Unsurpassed Tournament 2, after attaining my blessing of course. I really do sound like an overlord, huh? That would be so much more fun than anything else you could do IMO. But notice, I recommend that they have multiple organizers. Even when I was doing The UC1, I eventually realized that it helped for people to help me with tracking results. Nobody should try to be to much of a hero. Make it about the fun.

8. How did you come up with the format for your Alpha Beta Tournaments? Did you ever see yourself doing 60 of them?

At the time, beta map tourneys were more under-represented. And I figured that it was a good idea to have a tourney that celebrated the new maps while still paying homage to the established maps. I also considered an additional Beta Alpha series, but just didn't have the time to do both.

I actually saw myself doing 100 of them if you can believe it? (Not sure I can). One hundred was a nice glorious number! But, ultimately I have decided that I have more pressing things that I need to do in life and I decided that 60 is still a fine number to make my retirement from the series. Yes, Alpha Beta 60 is my final AB tourney. If anybody would like to continue the series, then contact me! It's a fun and simple series to run and very worthy of being ran still. For those looking to run a great series; why not run something with a proud heritage? No need to reinvent the wheel! Otherwise, I fear that the AB series is going the way of the dinosaur

9. What are your favorite kinds of tournaments to play in?

As I sort of alluded to already, I enjoy themed tournaments a lot. Often, that includes sports themes, but it can be any theme that holds my interest. From a map p.o.v. I do enjoy something that allows me to play the more difficult maps. But, I know I'm in the minority. Most tournament players do prefer simpler maps.

10. Anything else you would like to add?

I think that annual tournament awards are vital to the quality of the tournament culture. It's human nature to want recognition. I am disappointed that this was started and then not adequately continued. I understand that people get busy, so I'm not pointing a finger. But, the Tournament Directors would be well advised to highly prioritize this IMO. Also, I feel like the awards sort of preserve a posterity that will otherwise be forgotten.

Secondly, with the end of my Alpha Beta series, I'm looking forward to the possibility of running a tourney series with VioIet. We conceptualized a series like two years ago! But, we both run clans. And I've been busy with work and the AB series and she's been busy with school. But perhaps, my retirement from the AB series will open up time to run a tourney or two with her. Either way, I plan to smell the roses more (Or in my case, feed the squirrels more).

Thank you for taking the time for this interview VOL, I have always enjoyed Your AB series and I am looking forward to seeing your next tournament series!!

elonpuckhog: I went to college at Elon (its near Burlington and Greensboro, NC). While I was there, I played roller hockey for two years. One time at practice, one of my teammates called me a puck hog, which just wasn't true. So, I came up with elonpuckhog as a username for many other sites and its just kinda followed me around.

crazymilkshake5: My username was created about 4 years ago, I was making an Xbox live account and thought, "I want a name that will take up every space." And i narrowed it down to crazymilkshake5 or deadly bacon. and I thought that the latter was just dumb.

Clive: I didn't.

2. How long have you been playing on CC?

elonpuckhog: I've been on CC for a little over a year now. I was initially drawn to it by all the maps, and I've come to pick out some I'm quite fond of. I also enjoy the tourney and clan sections.

crazymilkshake5: Been here for 2 years

Clive: About 6 and a half years now.

3. Why did you decide to try out for the TD position?

elonpuckhog: I had been helping to lead a now-defunct clan, and I enjoyed doing that. I decided that if and when a TD position came open, I would apply for it because I liked the tourney part of the site best (clans are second). I spend most of my time in the tourney forum, so I wanted to apply. Shortly thereafter, the position came open and here I am.

crazymilkshake5: I tried for every position I could, and I love hosting tournaments, so I thought it would be a perfect fit!

Clive: Remembered Night Strike from 07, and I saw his post saying he wasn't getting enough apps so I put mine forward.

4. What was your reaction when you found out you got the position?

elonpuckhog: I was pleasantly surprised.

crazymilkshake5: Me reading the PM: Me getting to the part when I read that I got accepted: Me after re-reading the PM to make sure: Me 5 seconds later:

Clive: Little bit surprised/excited.

5. What kind of Tournaments do you like to host?

elonpuckhog: I'm always trying to come up with unique ideas. I don't think I've found a particular style yet that I love hosting. I'm kinda all over the place.

crazymilkshake5: I like to host short little 1v1 tourneys.

Clive: Sports League

6. What kind of Tournaments do you like to play in?

elonpuckhog: I try to avoid 1 v 1 tournies, since I'm terrible at 1 v 1 games. I will join most other tournies, depending on the maps being used. I'm always looking for unique ideas in tournies. Generally, the more players in a game, the higher likelihood that I will join the tourney.

crazymilkshake5: I generally like to play in Assassin tourneys or 1v1 16 player tourneys.

Clive: Sports League, Team

7. What feature(s) would you like to see implemented in tournaments?

elonpuckhog: I'm always looking to make my job easier. I would love to have a list of people to select from instead of having to type in everyone's name for invites. I think that will remove a lot of the headache.

crazymilkshake5: Honestly I would love to see a 1v1 map be completed so that we can have a true 1v1 Tournament.

Clive: Not sure, tbh. Random options on cards, forts, special game play etc would be useful for tiebreak games.

8. Do you remember your 1st tournament that you organized? How smoothly did it go?

elonpuckhog: I sure do. I talked it over with chapcrap to get his opinion on it and went forward with it. We had one person sign up who didn't join 2 of the 4 first round games and was a dead-beat in the other two. After that minor hiccup, it went pretty well and I've been hosting tournies ever since.

crazymilkshake5: Well, My first tournament was a 1v1 16 player tournament on the map California, And my second tournament was call "I'm Bored" so yeah.

Clive: Had to go search the completed forum to jog my memory. I was a co-host in a large tiered tourney, but the host and other co-hosts abandoned..sad times.

9. Do you remember the 1st tournament that you won? Were small children scared by you shouting when you won it?

elonpuckhog: The first tourney I won was an Assassin tourney on USA West. I actually had the same target for the final two rounds, so I was pretty confident I had a good chance to win.

crazymilkshake5: My first Tourney win was a 2v2 with my friend who got me started. And yes, I yelled so loud that everybody within a 25 meter radius lost their face.

Clive: A large NHL one..was quite happy about it. Though I won by default because my opponent failed to show up for the final. But i'd have won anyway

10. Any comments or a question you wished I would have asked?

elonpuckhog: nope.

crazymilkshake5: I feel like the answer to this question should be yes, but I don't know.

Clive: No

Thanks guys!! I hope you guys enjoy your new roles as Tournament Directors!!

Or Tic-Tac-Toe as it is referred to across the pond and elsewhere. This is a tournament I started when, following on from the last article, I realised that you could also manipulate images in the same way as tables and/or other text. My aim was to create a tournament which was so easy to update that once I had input a change, it would be represented on the main tournament thread.

For instance, the initial idea was to play Tic-Tac-Toe using maps; for instance:A player chooses a map and you play that map and the winner puts his "O" or "X" in the space of that map. The other player than chooses a map and so on until a line is made, or the majority of spaces are won.Obviously I have divided the grid into 9 separate images and created an additional three images of "Game In Progress" (or "Game"), "X" and "O". On a spreadsheet I have a simple 3 x 3 grid that represents the game:

Note that the first (reference) column has to be in alphabetical order. Now I just need to lookup the correct image from the simple 3 x 3 table using a 3 x 3 table with the following code in each of the 9 positions:

I'm sure this could be used to better effect, so any and all ideas welcome....

(These "tips" started off as ones that I used to make it a bit easier in managing my own tournaments. Now, I am looking at other types of tournaments and scoring systems by all you innovative TO's out there. So, if you have a unique scoring system that you would like me to have a go at automating, please let me know and I'll be pleased to try and assist. Any queries on the above I'll be glad to respond to of course. Please note that I have just moved to Excel 2010, so there may be variations if you have other versions of Excel)

TPA 2 StandingsSonic goes back to school tournament has finished. This was the first TPA2 tournament and the three-year curriculum has only just been completed. Hath was the "Cleverclogs" winning the first and the third year and the full set of results are as follows:

Another long tournament that finished is CCSOP (that was Conquer Club's first attempt at a poker tournament as far as I know). Swimmerdude99 beat Zoki77 in a closely fought final after uckuki had run out of chips. This makes the TPA2 scoreboard:swifte 5,715; dowian2 4,592; leehar 3,597; barterer2002 3,437; arno30 3,314; uckuki 3,265; benga 3,392 and hath 3,202.

AND NOW! INTRODUCING TPA4!!!However, we first need a cup and there is a design competition See Details and Further Details Here. Just to give you some ideas from the last competition, there were the following wonderful entries (plus another two that have been moved...):

And now for our regular look at a selection of the tournaments in sign-ups! On 30 August, we had a huge update to the side which showcased a new feature of 12 player games. It is of course only natural that the tournament world would quickly integrate these new changes into the tournaments. And indeed, in less than 12 hours after the announcement, 3 new tournaments emerged that made full use of this new feature. So here you go - the first 3 tournaments created that made use of this historic update, each of which still using very different tournament formats.

This tournament rightly boasts in its opening paragraph, "Somebody has to be the first to host a 12 player game based tournament - so here it is!" In the first two rounds of the tournament, players are placed in a 12-player game, and the first 6 players to be eliminated from the game will leave the tournament. In the finals, each player will play three 12-player games on different maps, with points being awarded for eliminating players and winning the game. The player with the most points will win the tournament.

I might add, though this is a Terminator tournament, the emphasis isn't entirely on eliminating other players - winning the game immediately gives you 9 points (8 for the win + 1 for the final kill), while there are only 10 more points up for grabs (10 other eliminated players). But you'll certainly need to make those extra kills to set yourself apart from any other player that wins a game in the finals of course! So if you're fine with this (most people are), go ahead and sign on up!

It's only fitting that we have a team tournament utilising this update as well. In the first round, you play against 5 other Quad teams in your group to win the most number of games out of the 4 you get to play. The top team in each of the 3 groups advance to the finals, where they will play a total of 6 games against both their opponents, with the Quads team that wins the most games in this final round winning the tournament.

This tournament revolves around 4 different maps of the whole world at varying degrees of detail (or magnification). In the first 4 rounds, the winning player advances straight into the finals, while the remaining players move on from the 12-player to the 11-, 10- and finally 9-player games of the subsequent rounds. With the finalists decided, the players will then form a Quads team with the finalists that were in the same group as them. They will then play against both of the other 2 Quads teams on 3 of the maps, with the team that wins the most games being the winner of the tournament.

Last issue it was all about BETA, this issue (as you will see) is about maps in development. Currently there are a total of 20 maps being worked on in either the Drafting Room, or the main Map Foundry. So if all goes well with these maps, over the next few months we could have another 20 maps to play. But it's up to you, the Community, to get in the Foundry and help move these maps along by giving constructive feedback, or confirmation of the Cartographers direction.

The extremely popular "Hidden Symbols" series moves to Twitter (@ConquerClub) for the next set of clues, and maps to look at more closely. Koontz1973 spotlights dakky21's Flower Wars, and with the upcoming excitement of 12 player games he discusses some maps that most likely won't be playable by 12.

Show your support for dakky During the two months of the Great Conquer Community Map project, one player kept coming back asking questions. Well now that ManBungalows map has had a couple of months alone in the foundry, I have said to all other finalists, they can now place their maps into the foundry. So lets welcome dakky21 and his excellent map Flower Wars.Map Name: Flower WarsMapmaker(s): dakky21Number of Territories: 46Special Features: Winning Condition, Bombardments, AutodeploysWhat Makes This Map Worthy of Being Made:Finished 3rd in GCCM contest

Below you will find a list of maps with the maximum amount of players you can play with on that map. Some maps will stay the same as before (AOR series) and some have been limited to 8 players only now because of starting positions (Feudal Epic) or number of territories on them (Classic Cities Madrid). But all in all, out of 231 maps, only 40 are limited to below 12 players. So go nuts and make a few.

Thanks for the mention I am so excited with all the great good things the new management has to offer. bigWham gives me a very good feeling, both because of his attitude and because of all the good things that have happened in the brief time since he assumed management.